kognitions

Kognitions, a term used in German and in English as cognitions, refers to the mental processes by which knowledge is acquired, transformed, stored, and used. The scope includes perception, attention, memory, language, thought, reasoning, problem solving, decision making, and executive control. Cognitions enable interpretation of input from the environment, formation of beliefs, planning, and regulation of behavior.

In cognitive science, the study of cognitions seeks to describe how information is processed and represented in the mind. Its modern formulation emerged from the cognitive revolution of the mid-20th century, drawing on philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. Major theoretical approaches include the information-processing perspective, which models thinking as computation, as well as connectionist models that simulate mental processes with neural networks. More recently, embodied cognition emphasizes the role of the body and environment, while Bayesian frameworks describe belief updating under uncertainty.

Researchers use experiments, neuroimaging, and computational modelling to investigate cognitive phenomena, from basic sensory processing to high-level reasoning. Key topics include attention and working memory, perception, language and semantics, memory encoding and retrieval, decision making, problem solving, and learning.

Applications of cognition research span education, clinical psychology, user experience design, and artificial intelligence. Insights into cognitions inform educational methods, cognitive rehabilitation, and the development of AI systems that emulate human information processing. See also: cognition, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence.